


Dinner With the Bannermans

by Saklani



Category: Dead Zone
Genre: Domestic, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, OT3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-03
Updated: 2013-03-03
Packaged: 2017-12-04 03:15:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/705896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saklani/pseuds/Saklani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dinner with the Bannermans leads to a few surprising truths for Johnny Smith.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dinner With the Bannermans

Johnny Smith seldom found enough time to really consider the strangeness of his life outside the whole visions thing. Bad enough having to deal with constant visions, Greg Stillson’s rise, and oh yeah, the whole the end of the world thing, without thinking about the rest of his messed-up life. But the galling fact remained that aside from Bruce, the main people in Johnny’s life were his pre-accident fiancee and her husband.

That was never his intention when he got out of the hospital, a different, but still self-sufficient, thank you, man. He planned to rebuild his life from the ground up- find a new teaching job, meet new friends, get himself a girl and start a new generation of Smiths in Cleves Mills.

Life, and his fickle brain, made other plans. Being able to hunt down murderers and other criminals with your brain proved to be a talent that the sheriff could get to admire and seek out. Even if you were his wife’s former betrothed and the father of the son he was raising. Stranger, you could get to be friends... with maybe a helping of attraction thrown in. 

Meanwhile, your former fiancee invited you back into her life and to build a relationship with your son. She brought you into family dinners and outings, as well as throwing out a few sparks of her own in your direction. All in all, it was enough to make any man’s life confusing.

Johnny glanced up from his plate of ham, candied yams, pineapples, stuffing and mashed potatoes and smiled at both Bannermans. “This is quite a Christmas dinner, Sarah,” he said.

“Don’t thank only me, Johnny. Walt is amazingly good in the kitchen.” Sarah Bannerman flicked amused eyes at Walt Bannerman, who was rapidly turning a becoming shade of maroon. 

“Yeah,” Walt muttered. “I managed to cut a fresh pineapple and slice the ham without losing any fingers.”

Johnny laughed and winked at his son, JJ. “Well, sounds like your father really is a wizard with food,” he said, making the boy smile tentatively at him.

“Oh, shut up,” Walt said in mock irritation. “Before I married Sarah, I lived off of frozen dinners, soup and beans.”

“He’d never even heard of a vegetable,” Sarah agreed with a rueful shake of her head at Johnny. 

“You know, going over my faults is hardly in the spirit of the holiday,” Walt said. He forked up a large piece of perfectly cut ham and munched on it with dignity.

John and Sarah both shook their heads at each other in amusement and started on their own dinners.

“I would have helped you cook, Sarah,” Johnny said. “You know I’ve always been a fair hand at cooking, even more so since I started living alone.”

Sarah waved a hand at him. “You’re doing New Years.”

“I’m doing- wait, what?” Johnny asked.

Walt now turned on him with amusement of his own. “Didn’t you already know that? Touch a pot in your kitchen and see yourself slaving over a hot stove?”

“No, but I might have seen myself beating a certain sheriff over the head with it,” Johnny said. “And since when am I in charge of New Year’s dinner?” he asked, turning toward Sarah. 

Sarah speared him with a penetrating gaze. “Are you doing anything for New Years?”

“Uh, no.”

“Then you can make dinner for us and Bruce,” she said with a little smile. “Keep it all in the family.”

JJ and Walt snickered in what Johnny found sickening unison. “What, you don’t think I should invite Reverend Purdy and Dana, too?” Johnny demanded. All three Bannerman noses wrinkled, and Johnny privately agreed with them. “Fine. New Years dinner. Don’t expect to make this a habit.”

“Of course we’ll make this a habit,” Walt said with a grin. “One holiday for each household. Makes perfect sense.”

Sarah nodded and added, “There is no reason not to divide this between us, like everything else.”

Johnny blinked a few times and stared blankly at the wall for a moment. “We do do that, don’t we?”

In the middle of a mouthful of yams, and gross, Walt said, “Yeah. So?”

“Well, don’t you think that’s a little weird?” Johnny asked, looking between Sarah and Walt.

They both looked nonplussed by the question, before Walt said, “Uh, no.” He paused and seemed to consider for a moment. “I mean, at first, I was a little weirded out by the whole ex-husband to be back from a coma with psychic powers, but it seems pretty normal now.” He shrugged and went back to his food.

Johnny turned to Sarah, but she just smiled and said, “I didn’t even have that much trouble.”

So, apparently, Johnny was the only one who even considered this a little bit strange. And really, considering he was eating Christmas dinner with them and planning on holding New Years, he couldn’t really think the whole thing was too unusual.

“Are all those big presents under the tree for me?” JJ asked with bright eyes.

“Um, actually, there are some for your parents, too,” Johnny admitted.

“So, really, not too weird then,” JJ said and damn it if even the child didn’t seem to be against him. 

“I might have gone a little overboard with the gift giving,” Johnny admitted after an awkward pause. “I mean, who else do I have to...” He bit his lip and sighed, “All right, I get the point.”

“What point?” JJ asked.

Johnny scowled at him and then sighed. “Fine. I concede. Game, set and match to the Bannermans.”

Sarah arched an eyebrow at him. “You may concede, but you’re obviously missing what we’re saying.”

“You are a Bannerman,” Walt said. “Except in name.” 

“And I miss out on the-” Johnny looked at JJ and paused. “I mean, yeah, I guess I am.” He grabbed his glass of wine and raised it in the air. “To the Bannermans.”

The others lifted their respective drinks, and milk wasn’t bad luck to toast with right?, and repeated, “To the Bannermans.” They clinked their glasses together and drank.

And as Johnny sipped and looked over the second chance life had given him, he figured, heck, maybe weird wasn’t such a bad way to go after all.


End file.
